Documentary maker Mark Laita, who brought attention to the so-called “America’s most inbred family”, has shared his initial encounter with them.
Laita first filmed the Whittakers from Odd, West Virginia, five years ago and has since returned regularly to provide updates on the family via YouTube.
The Whittaker family’s inbreeding began when the offspring of identical twin brothers Henry and John intermarried, leading to generations of inbreeding and resulting in many of their children suffering severe disabilities.
Laita revealed it was initially challenging to gain access to the family as their neighbours were highly protective of them. However, he eventually managed to accompany a police officer to their residence.
Speaking on the Koncrete Klips podcast, the filmmaker recalled: “We came around to this road, which turns into a country road, which turns into a dirt road.”, reports the Mirror US.
He added: “Then we come to this trailer and then a little shack on the other side of the road. And there’s these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they are barking at us.”
Laita likened his first meeting with the family to a scene from the thriller film Deliverance.
He said: “One guy, you would look him in the eye or say anything and he would just scream and go running away, and his pants would fall around his ankles, and he would go running off and go and kick a garbage can. And this would happen over and over. It was out of control – the craziest thing I have ever seen.”
Initially, the family were reluctant to speak with Laita, but he gradually established a rapport with them after offering to photograph them for placement in a deceased relative’s coffin.
He returned subsequently to film Inbred Family – The Whittakers in 2020.
He confessed it was “hard to communicate with them” but has since produced videos for his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly, chronicling their existence.
The videos bear titles such as “Christmas season with the Whittakers”, “The Whittaker family cemetery”, and “The Whittakers go to the state fair”.
Laita revealed that throughout the years, he has garnered contrasting responses from viewers regarding his videos.
He said some brand him an “exploitative b******” whilst others regard the clips as “incredible”.
He acknowledged his work was exploitative, but argued it was inescapable in life, stating: “It feels exploitative but I think it’s good for us all to know that these things exist. The hotel I’m staying at, they’re exploiting my need for sleep. The restaurant I ate breakfast at is exploiting my hunger. Everything is exploitative. Photography and video are especially by nature exploitative.”